3 WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE TODAY
Yaniv Masjedi, Chief Marketing Officer, Nextiva
Inside today’s companies, there's one topic that's debated now more than ever: the customer experience.
What is your company doing to prioritize, track, analyze, and improve its customer experience? It’s incredibly important and for good reason. According to a recent Hubspot study, over 80 percent of companies that prioritize customer experience report increased revenue.
The bottom-line impact of a solid customer experience strategy is critical, but it can often overwhelm business owners. After all, these are the people who make sure their products or services serve their customers, that vendors get paid, and employees are happy. It's understandable that customer experience (or CX) can fall by the wayside. If you know your CX could improve, keep reading for three ways you can take positive action today.
1. Focus on your employees
Happy employees bring in happy customers. One of the best ways to improve your CX is to first look internally to find areas where your team could be better supported. Schedule one-on-one meetings with your employees to ask them how they’re doing, how they like their roles, and where they see their careers going. Then, listen and act. Encourage feedback on all levels and without judgment.
There are other ways you can support your staff, too. Consider mentorship programs, professional development conferences, flexible working schedules, and continued training.
2. Designate a ‘chief customer officer’
According to a report by advisory firm Nemertes Research, the presence of chief customer officers is on the rise. This is an executive-level person whose entire focus is to be the voice of the customer within an organization. Here at Nextiva, our co-founder Tracy Conrad fills that role. We call him our ‘Chief Amazing Officer,' and our customers have expressed appreciation that someone in an executive position has their best interests in mind.
Can’t yet redirect one of your top dogs to exclusively focus on this position? No problem. Instead, create a customer experience committee to create strategies to best serve your customers. After a few months, circle back and re-strategize, and consider making one person in charge of the customer experience.
3. Make life as easy as possible for your customers
Today’s customers are more sophisticated and have higher expectations than ever before. Just think about how your behaviors, as a customer, have changed over time. If you’re like me, you research companies before buying, expect prompt service right away, and you’re willing to look elsewhere when your needs aren’t met. Plus, you want to be able to communicate effortlessly with every company in your sphere.
It is that last point—communication—that I’m especially passionate about. There are few things worse than reaching out to a company with a question via email only to be asked the same question again over chat, text, or phone. It can be defeating to explain yourself over and over again, and tiresome for company employees, as well.
Companies and customers feel those frustrations across every vertical. That’s why we developed a robust customer relationship management solution, NextOS, which brings all communication into one place. It gives companies the tools needed to track and analyze communications across all channels (chat, text, surveys, phone, etc.) and respond accordingly.
And if Hubspot’s research is correct—that a whopping 76 percent of customers expect companies to understand their needs—making life easier for them is a step in the right direction.
I’d love to hear from you: what CX strategies would you add to this list? Please comment below and let’s get the conversation started!
Yaniv joined Nextiva in 2008 and currently serves as Chief Marketing Officer. He manages Nextiva's marketing and branding efforts by working to create strategies that drive awareness, strengthen the Nextiva brand, and share the story of the company's unique customer-centric culture, known as "Amazing Service". He also initiates and manages programs related to brand management, demand generation, and advertising.